Veggie Pad Thai Zoodles with Peanut Dressing

Veggie Pad Thai Salad with a sweet and savoury peanut dressing – ready in 15 minutes or less. This spicy noodle bowl uses julienned zucchini in place of noodles making it perfect as light lunch or dinner side.

I think it’s about time I buy myself an spiralizer because I’m just about done with slicing the ever-loving you-know-what out of my fingers with my current julienne peeler. We had a good run together, my julienne peeler and I and have made lots of fun things together. We went through countless carrots, tons of courgettes, I even made hash browns out of a few potatoes. But now it’s time for bigger and better things and I can’t keep hurting myself like this. It’s time to move on….

Until then, I just can’t help myself. I am so on board with this whole zoodle craze that has taken hold. Maybe it’s because I’m still a five year old at heart, but I find it so much easier to eat my vegetables when they are small enough that I can pretend they’re not there. One of my favorite breakfasts involves me slicing up a zucchini, cutting it up into even smaller bits and throwing it in my eggs with a bit of feta and cherry tomatoes and you don’t even know they’re there. It’s amazing.

Which brings me to this Pad Thai salad. Unlike regular Pad Thai, this replaces the noodles with shredded zucchini aka “zoodles”. Between the zoodles, the shredded carrot, and everything else this veggie Pad Thai is basically a big ol’ bowl of your five a day. Also unlike traditional Pad Thai, there’s no stir frying required – just a quick flash fry of carrots and zucchini to soften them up. Then all you have to do is pile on the peppers, the herbs, and the 2 minute peanut sauce and you have a fresher and healthier reincarnation of your very a takeout favorite.

If you crave a little more protein in your life you can also toss in a bit of chopped chicken or tofu. Or you can just go crazy like me and throw in another handful (or two) of chopped peanuts. I dig that crunch.

Speaking of peanuts. I am all about this peanut dressing. It’s simple. It’s sweet. It’s savory. It takes more time to actually locate the ingredients to make said dressing than it does to mix it all together. I want to pour this sauce over my cereal and have it for breakfast it’s that good.

This, in my opinion, is the way vegetables should be eaten.

Do any of you own a spiralizer type contraption or have any recommendations? If so – discuss in the comments and let me know!

Yield: 4 servings

Veggie Pad Thai Zoodles

Veggie Pad Thai Salad with a sweet and savory peanut dressing - ready in 15 minutes or less. This spicy noodle bowl uses julienned zucchiuni in place of noodles making it perfect as light lunch or dinner side.

Prep Time10 minutes

Cook Time2 minutes

Total Time12 minutes

Ingredients

2 large zucchinis shredded

1 large carrot shredded

1 red pepper, diced

1/4 cup a small handful fresh cilantro, diced + more for garnshing

1/4 cup a small handful fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup of green onions, diced (green part only for low FODMAP)

1 hot pepper sliced - remove the seed if you want less heat

1/2 cup | 65 grams peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped

juice from 1/2 lime

1 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp sesame oil + more for frying

2 tbsp coconut aminos or tamari

1 tbsp coconut sugar, or brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

Heat a skillet with a little bit of sesame oil and flash fry your shredded zucchini and carrot for 1-2 minutes to soften. Make sure to stir the entire time, then remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.

Add the diced red peppers, hot pepper, fresh herbs, and peanuts to the zoodles and squeeze the lime juice over the veggies. Toss to combine.

In a small bowl add the peanut butter, sesame oil, coconut aminos (or tamari), sugar, and red pepper flakes - whisk to combine. Pour over the zoodles and toss. Garnish with additional cilantro and peanuts and serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

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Reader Interactions

Comments

I made this over the weekend to have for a quick, healthy lunch that I can eat on the go at work. It’s absolutely amazing! I omitted the sugar and it was still so delicious! Definitely making this many more times. Thank you for the recipe 😀

Hi Bernadette! SO sorry about that! I recently updated something on my site and it ended removing the recipes for a handful of posts – this one slipped under the radar but it’s back up now. Technology is hard! Thanks for pointing that out to me – glad you ended up making your own version still!

I actually think that my comment didn’t post, if you see it twice I am sorry, I was just saying that I love the bowl of vegan goodness you have here and that that peanut sauce is killer and I may run to the kitchen and make it now.

I just got back from the International Food BLoggers Conference and one of the sessions was with Kitchenaid – Sur la table and they did a demo of the spiralizer attachment to the kitchenaid stand mixer. I have a handheld spiralizer, but it really is a pain to use it. I am so in love with this attachment I saw and from what I saw in the demo, it looked like a pretty good one. There are a couple of settings, so you can get different thickness for your zoodles as well. Love this recipe, this is going in my recipe box to use when I get that spiralizer attachment 🙂

Hahah, I understand because I used to be the same one. I’ll admit in some dishes it just doesn’t compare, but I think in this one it goes really well with everything because it’s all based on light, fresh flavors just like the zucchini

I am so with you: even though I don’t have a spiralizer, I still NEED zoodles and the like! And these pad thai noodles look like my newest zoodle craze! I definitely want to try these out sometime! Thanks for sharing! Pinned! 😀

Oh girrrl get yourself a spiralizer already and keep your fingers where they belong… attached! I love using a spiralizer since it’s so fast and kind of fun too. But what I really love is this freakin pad thai!! OH MY GOSH does it look delicious. I will definitely have to make this one, my belly is already asking for it 😉

Thanks, Meg! Is it weird that the other thing I really like about spiralizer’s is that they always make the noodles veggies look all nice and curly? Because I totally love that! Thank you so much – hope you like it as much as we did!

I love the concept of replacing noodles with zoodles. I just got a spiralizer and made one dish – that’s all it took to convince me that I could become a fan. Besides, I’m a a huge fan of Pad Thai, so this looks perfect for me.

Zoodles! Pad Thai!! What an awesome combo! And I’m sure your peanut sauce just puts it over the top!! This is something I’m definitely going to have to try – maybe get my spiralizer first though (totally feel your pain with the finger and knuckle damage of certain kitchen activities). I like adding crispy tofu to my pad thai but more peanuts sounds like a wonderful plan too!

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